Roller stamps of ink-exuding type are generally well known. Such roller stamps include a rotatably supported stamp roller of ink-exuding type that is adapted to be rolled on surface to thereby transfer letters, figures, numerals, symbols, photos or the like from the roller surface to the surface to be stamped. Known roller stamps have a mechanism to define the leading edge and trailing edges of the roller stamp so that the entire seal face of the roller stamp can be reliably transferred to the surface to be stamped. Known roller stamps can contribute to the protection of the environment relative to adhesive labels, and it is expected that such roller stamps will be widely used for this reason.
Various indications are necessary, for example, on corrugated cardboard shipping boxes, such as destination, article name, article number, bar codes, content description, and instruction for handling. Conventionally, these indications common to many corrugated cardboard boxes can be directly printed on the boxes. Such indications may include the destinations and the instructions for handling (e.g. xe2x80x9cFragilexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cDon""t Turn Overxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cDon""t Throwxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cDon""t Lay Downxe2x80x9d, etc.). Label seals protected by release paper have often been used for such applications. For such label seals, a large number of labels previously printed with various instructions are typically stored and an appropriate seal is then selected and affixed it to the box. Blank labels have usually been stamped or printed with the destination and then affixed to the box.
Release paper has generated troublesome refuse, and the operation of peeling the label seals off from the boxes for the purpose of reusing the used corrugated cardboard boxes requires time and labor. The label seals that have been peeled off also generate refuse and cause environmental problems.
The problems described above can be avoided by using a roller stamp to transfer various indications directly on the corrugated cardboard box without use of the label seals themselves. Troublesome operation of affixing and peeling off the label seals is not necessary, such that the operating cost is reduced, and generation of refuse is avoided. However, a flat stamp, it is difficult to stamp uniformly, particularly when the seal face is relatively large and a considerable force is necessary to achieve this. In contrast, roller stamps enable a distinct transfer to be carried out with a light touch since each cycle of stamping is completed by continuous line contacts as the roller stamp rotates through a 360xc2x0 range.
The present invention provides a novel roller stamp of ink-exuding type including a simplified mechanism to define the position at which the transfer is started and ended. This invention also provides a simplified process for making such a roller stamp.
One aspect of the invention is a roller stamp of ink-exuding type comprising a stamp roller of ink-exuding type, a seal face on a cylindrical surface of said stamp roller. A ratchet wheel is provided on one end surface of said stamp roller so as to lie inside a peripheral wall of said stamp roller. The ratchet wheel has a locking recess adapted to define a position at which each cycle of stamping is started and completed, and a locking projection elastically biased to be engaged with said locking recess. A control mechanism is adapted to disengage said locking projection from said locking recess. The position at which the locking projection comes in engagement with the locking recess corresponds to the position at which each cycle of stamping is started and completed. With the locking projection disengaged from the locking recess, the roller is fully rotated and thereupon the locking projection comes into engagement with the locking recess again to stop further rotation of the roller. In this way, the seal face of the roller stamp can be accurately stamped on the object to be stamped.
The roller stamp of ink-exuding type according to the present invention further comprises a roller supporting cover frame rotatably supporting the stamp roller of ink-exuding type by its roller shaft supporting side plates and provided with an opened region in which the stamp roller is partially exposed. The locking projection and control mechanism are formed on one of the roller shaft supporting side plates. Operation of stamping can be easily carried out by merely manipulating the control mechanism with the roller supporting cover frame held in hand.
The roller supporting cover frame includes a cylindrical member having the opened region facing downward in which said stamp roller is partially exposed, and the roller shaft supporting side plates are detachably mounted on longitudinally opposite ends of the cylindrical member. The roller supporting cover frame has a cylindrical shape which facilitates the operation of stamping.
The roller shaft supporting side plate has the locking projection on its inner side. The locking projection is elastically biased downward, and the roller shaft supporting side plate is provided on its outer side with a control button adapted to move the locking projection upward and thereby disengage the locking projection from the locking recess of the ratchet wheel. The operation of stamping starting from the leading edge of the seal face and ending at the tail edge of the seal face can be reliably achieved by a single cycle of stamping.
The stamp roller of ink-exuding type comprises a cylindrical ink reservoir formed of thermoplastic synthetic resin and provided with a central shaft extending through respective central zones of its longitudinally opposite side walls. The stamp roller also includes a cylindrical seal face member formed of ink-permeable thermoplastic synthetic resin that is heat-sealable with the ink reservoir and fits around said ink reservoir. The ink reservoir and the seal face member are formed of the same type of the same material and a high workability for heat-sealing or the like is obtained.
The cylindrical ink reservoir includes a plurality of ink supplying through-holes on its peripheral wall. The ink reservoir may be filled with ink such that the roller stamp may be used for a long period without resupplying the reservoir with ink.
The longitudinally opposite end surfaces of the ink reservoir are heat-sealed with longitudinally opposite end surfaces of the seal face member. In this way, there is no risk that any quantity of ink might leak sideways from the ink reservoir or from the seal face member. One of the end walls of the ink reservoir includes an ink supplement through-hole. When the ink reservoir becomes short of ink, the reservoir can be supplemented with ink.
Another aspect of this invention is a process for making a roller stamp of ink-exuding type. The method includes the steps of molding material for the ink reservoir and ink-permeable material for the seal face member into long tubular stock materials using pipe-extruder. The tubular stock materials are cut to the same length to make each set of ink reservoir and seal face member for the stamp roller. In this way, it is possible to select a width of the seal face and thereby to reduce the manufacturing cost.